FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend a panel held during Project Healthy Minds' second annual World Mental Health Day Festival and The Archewell Foundation Parents' Summit: Mental Wellness in the Digital Age in New York City, U.S., October 10, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said if Prince Harry lied on his visa application about drug-taking Trump would seek to take "appropriate action" if he won November's presidential election, declining to rule out Harry leaving the United States.
Trump's comments to British right-leaning media outlet GB News came in an interview with presenter and frequent Harry critic Nigel Farage.
U.S. visa applicants are required to make a disclosure about any history of drug use, which can impact their application. Lying on an application can result in penalties including deportation.
Harry, who has lived in California since 2020, admitted to past illegal drug use in his memoir "Spare," after which conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation sued the U.S. Homeland Security Department to access his immigration records. Earlier this month, a judge ruled in that case that the details pertaining to Harry's visa application should be handed over to court.
Farage, a long-time Trump ally, asked the Republican presidential candidate if Prince Harry should receive any "special privileges" if he lied in his application.
"No. We'll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they'll have to take appropriate action," Trump replied.
When asked if that might mean Harry "not staying in America," the former president replied: "Oh I don't know. You'll have to tell me. You just have to tell me. You would have thought they would have known this a long time ago."
Since Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle left royal duties and moved to California, they have often railed at their treatment by Britain's royal family.
From an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021 to a Netflix documentary series and Harry's book, the couple have asserted that the royals and their aides failed to protect them from a hostile press and leaked negative stories about them.
The couple, who married in 2018, have rarely returned to Britain since their departure for the United States.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
